A Single Mom's Blog

While there’s no “cure” for allergies as yet, you can manage your pollen allergies so that you don’t have to suffer as the days get longer. Here are some tips for managing those pollen allergies this spring.

Don’t Ask for It

The weather is often wonderful in spring, and it’s tempting to spend all your time outdoors. Of course it’s not practical or desirable to stay inside all the time; but it’s not a good idea to invite trouble, either. Inviting trouble means you’re deliberately going to do things like lie in the grass, or run through fields of flowers, or gather bouquets to bring in the house. Doing those things is like going the extra mile to bring on an allergy attack!

Prepare for Storms

Did you know that ER doctors have a term for increase in allergic asthma victims they see in spring? They call it “thunderstorm asthma,” because the hours and day following a thunderstorm brings more asthma patients to the ER. Why? Well, heavy raindrops such as occur in thunderstorms break up the blobs of pollen into tinier, finer powder, which is more easily inhaled. And storms’ winds distribute the pollen far and wide. So when spring storms threaten, it’s a good idea to get inside or get your inhaler ready.

Air Condition Your Car and Home

Although it costs in energy, fuel and utility bills, air conditioning your home and car and keeping the windows closed can go a very long way toward providing allergy relief. Air conditioning filters, dries and cools the air, both in the car and the house. Closed windows prevent hot, pollen-filled air from coming in.

Use the Clothes Dryer

Okay, so it’s another energy user. But hanging your clothes out in pollen-infested air only brings the allergens in. Hanging out your sheets and bedding is probably the worst – you bring the pollen into your bedroom where you lie in it all night! The clothes dryer is really helpful for those with pollen allergies.

Wash Your Hair Daily

Many of us do this anyway, but make sure kids wash their hair each day, too, in the evening before bed. Even a good rinse helps and is better than nothing. Hair, especially if it’s long and worn loose, can pick up pollen spores during the day. Washing removes the allergens and helps prevent night-time allergy attacks.

Medication

Some allergy sufferers shun medication; others take it daily; still others take it only on an as-needed basis. Whatever your approach, if you decide to go with medication, make sure it’s not going to compromise your ability or safety. Many medications for allergies can make you drowsy, and others can make you feel “space-y” and out of it. If you have trouble with oral medications, you might consider nasal gels or sprays.

One of the most common problems faced by mothers today is their inability to stop worrying. It’s just a natural thing for mothers to do. We know that our children our young and don’t realize all of the dangers within the world, so we worry. Not only do we worry about our children, but we also worry about our relationships with others, our jobs, our finances and many more things. For some reason, women seem to be more susceptible to excessive worrying. However, as mothers, we need to realize that while we’re worrying about all of the dangers surrounding our children and our lives excessive worrying is a danger in itself.

There are many health problems that can arise when we allow ourselves to worry too much. Now, please understand that worrying is a normal thing for people to do, especially mothers, it’s the excessive worrying that we need to control. Excessive worrying is when you find yourself worrying about something practically all day, every day. This is the worrying that can cause health problems. The health problems that can arise from excessive worrying include:

• Anxiety Attacks
• Digestive Disorders
• Physical Illness
• High Blood Pressure
• Muscle Tension
• Weak Immune System
• Premature Coronary Artery Disease
• Heart Attack
• Memory Loss

The list above is a short list of the health problems that can be caused by excessive worrying. As good mothers, the thing we want most is to be in good health so we can always be here for our children. Therefore, it’s important that we learn how to manage our worry. Below are a few things that can help you manage worry.

Eat Right: It’s important to realize that when you’re excessively worrying about something, you’re most likely not eating right. Therefore, concentrate on eating a healthy, balanced diet. Make sure you are eating enough throughout the day, but also make sure you aren’t overdoing it either. Eating right is important when trying to control your worrying because when you’re focused on eating right, you’re not focusing on the things you’re usually worrying about. It’s also important for your physical health.

Exercise Daily: Exercising has a way of making us feel better. When you exercise every day, you will be giving your mind a break from the worries that have been plaguing it. You will also be releasing chemicals within your body that work to improve your immune system.

Meditate: Meditation has been around for centuries and is well-known for its therapeutic powers. In order to meditate correctly, you must be in a quiet place and be still. You must clear your mind and concentrate on nothing but the present. This means that you must not allow your mind to think

about anything that may happen in the future or has happened in the past. Meditating daily has been proven effective in helping manage worry and stress.

Relax: Make time to relax every day. Even if you can only find 20 minutes, it will help reduce your worrying tremendously. Methods for relaxing is different for everyone, you may be able to relax by

Get Counseling: If you struggle with excessive counseling and can’t control it on your own, then you need to find a therapist. Just having someone to talk to about your excessive worrying will help. Don’t be afraid to seek help if you need it, because excessive worrying is dangerous for your health.reading a book, watching television, soaking in the bathtub or gardening. The key is that you take the time to do whatever it is that relaxes you every day.

Flowers for Mother’s Day: they seem like a natural choice but they are not particularly creative, and they don’t last. Why not try something different? Here are some ideas on creating unique gifts for Mom with a floral theme.

Pressed Flowers

Pressed flowers can be the start of many lovely crafts and unique gift ideas. Here are just a few of the things you can do with pressed flowers.

* Bookmarks – Use clear contact paper to make a bookmark. Cut a bookmark-sized strip of clear contact paper; lay it sticky-side-up. Place flowers on the sticky side of the contact paper. Cover with a slightly larger piece of the contact paper and trim edges.

* Placemats – Using the same technique as above, make Mom a set of flowery placemats.

* Jewelry – Use craft clay (or make your own) that is baked to become hard and permanent. Create a shape for a necklace pendant, pin, or earrings; bake until hard. Using decoupage medium, apply the pressed flower to the piece. Cover with decoupage medium to seal it.

* Picture frames – Use clay to make a picture frame; bake to harden. Apply pressed flowers using the same technique as above.

Edible Flowers

You don’t have to pay a fortune for professional, edible bouquets; you can make your own. All you need is fruit and bamboo skewers (available in most grocery stores). Use a large piece of floral foam to mount the skewers. Place fruit on the sharp end of the skewer, and place the blunt end of the skewer into the foam. Thread grapes onto skewers, cut melons in flower shapes, put whole strawberries on the ends, and so forth. Use mint or parsley sprigs to fill in the space between the “flowers” once they are arranged.

Variation: make flowers out of chocolate candies, veggies, or whatever Mom likes. A hot glue gun can be used to attach wrapped candies.

Paper Flowers

For a floral gift that won’t wilt or rot, try making flowers from paper. You can get elaborate or go simple with paper flowers. You can use them to make bouquets, garlands, or wreaths. Here is how to make tissue paper flowers:

Stack half-sheets (about 5″x8″) of tissue paper to make about ten layers in various colors (or one color). Starting on a short side, fold the sheets in strips fan-style. Wind a few inches of a green or brown pipe cleaner tightly around the middle to pinch it. The rest of the pipe cleaner will be the stem (if you’re going to make a wreath, use short bits of pipe cleaner to pinch the middle of the tissue).

Trim the edges of the tissue to make even edges. Then, separate each layer of tissue on each side of the middle, pulling the pieces gently inward to cover the pipe cleaner. When you finish, you should have a fluffy, colorful flower.

Uh-oh…it’s a rainy day and your kids are stuck in the house. Maybe you had planned to get the cleaning done this weekend, or while the kids were at school and you forgot it was a holiday. Or maybe you have kids who are too young to be in school. Whatever the reason – you have a rainy day, kids in the house, and cleaning that needs to be done. Can you actually get anything done, or will you have to clean another day?

Here’s an idea: why not get the kids involved in spring cleaning? You can bust boredom and get cleaning done at the same time! Here are some ideas.

Find It!

Kids usually love to find stuff – hence the game “hide and seek.” Tell your children you’re on a hunt to find forgotten and or lost toys (you will!)
, or slip a fun treasure like a gold chocolate coin under the piles of stuff you need to go through. They’ll find the coin at the bottom.

As you find toys, it can be hard for kids to get rid of them; they’re like new again. So maybe this would be a good time to concentrate on organizing rather than donating (for now). Put the newly-discovered items in their own “homes” in the form of bins.

Music Time

Put on fun music and clean to the rhythm! This is a great way to get everyone energized and having fun. You can do fun dance moves as you vacuum, throw things away, wipe counters, mop, etc. It’s also a great workout!

Assembly Line

Play an assembly line game. This works for cleaning out things like kitchen cabinets or pantries. Get your kids in a line (this works with one child, too) with a garbage bag at the end of the line. Pass down old items that need to be discarded and let the last person toss it in. You can switch around so everyone gets a turn to toss the item in the garbage. Set up a basketball-type hoop over the trash if you want to make it even more fun.

Crafts

As you clean out, let the kids get ideas for making something out of one or two items (it’s a good idea to limit it to one or two; kids’ creative imaginations can find reasons to save about anything). After cleaning, promise your children you’ll do a craft with them from the saved items.

Soup can puppets, plastic bottle bird-feeders, and other fun things can be made with recycled items. Some of those old spices and herbs from the kitchen cabinets have interesting containers, too; clean them out and do layered colored salt or sand crafts, or plant seeds in them.

The goal of any business is to make money. And, we’re not just talking about the short term but long term goals of increased revenue. To that end, many businesses are missing out on a multi-billion dollar market: moms. Marketing to moms is the wave of the now and the future.

Why are moms so important?

Moms are enterprising. According to BSM Media Inc., mom spending is already over the trillion dollar mark. That’s more than the budget of some third world countries.

Also according to BSM Media Inc., almost 90 percent of moms consider themselves the financial head of the home. Her husband may bring home most of the bacon but it is the moms who decide how to spend it. They shop for everything related to the household: kids clothing, appliances, electronics, outdoor furniture, accessories and home improvement items.

Any husband that shops for these things is going to consult their wives before buying them. Why? Wives do the research into these products to find the best on the market. Moms influence as much as 85 percent of the purchases for the home. That’s over 70 million women we are talking about here. It doesn’t get any bigger than that.

Think about all of the tasks that moms handle in a day. They take care of the housework, shuffle kids from school to sporting events to other activities, cook dinner and manage the finances. In order to keep everything straight, they employ a wide variety of technology. It’s not uncommon to see a mom sitting in the park watching her kids play while listening to an iPod or browsing the Internet on her iPhone.

Moms are also savvy on the Internet. The trend for many years has been moms coming out of the workplace and starting their own businesses at home to spend more time with their kids. To that end, moms have developed a network of blogs, websites and forums designed to teach moms everything from designing websites, starting Internet businesses, marketing to other moms and managing their homes all the while. Their buying power increased exponentially with their knowledge.

Manly mistake?

Traditionally the only products marketed towards women were household products and cooking items. This goes back to the archaic thought that a woman’s place was in the home. That has been a huge detriment to many companies as they are beginning to see.

Women and moms have made an imprint in the man’s world in many areas. Women are not limited to office jobs; they are CEOs and CFOs. They don’t just surf the Web, they are becoming entrepreneurs with widening influence over Internet marketing. Having moms shun your product because you are not marketing to them means they are also spreading the word to other moms across the world (via the Internet) and in their own communities.

The future

Moms are influenced by other moms. Several generations of moms are coming together to influence the spending habits of major corporations. In the future the trend will continue. As moms become more “connected” in the world, their spending will increase. No product is off limits to mom advertising.

Moms do rule the world. Gain the support of savvy moms with your products and your business will reap the benefits.